Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will name its under-construction Albuquerque headquarters building after the late John Gordon, the former agency administrator who died early this year. Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, the current administrator of the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency, announced the decision on Aug. 21. The building’s official name will be the John […]

Although the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plans to replace Consolidated Nuclear Security as the manager of the Y-12 National Security Site in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas, the incumbent will stay on at Y-12 to continue building the new factory for nuclear-weapon secondary stages. “The Uranium Processing Facility (UPF) project will continue […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) picked up four new confirmed cases of COVID-19 this week, bringing the nuclear-weapon agency’s total to 529 since the confirmed beginning of the U.S. outbreak, a spokesperson said Friday. So far, 416 people among the agency’s federal employees and contractors have recovered from their bouts with the disease caused […]

Michelle Reichert will next week become president and CEO of Consolidated Nuclear Security, the outgoing management and operations contractor for the Y-12 National Security Site in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas, the Bechtel National-led company said Friday. Reichert, currently chief operating officer for the prime, will replace Morgan Smith, who is retiring after […]

A regional organization to promote communities around the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico will soon need a new executive director for the second time in a little more than two years. The Regional Coalition of LANL Communities (RCLC) Board of Directors voted on July 30 to end its working relationship […]

Cal Biesecker Defense Daily Leidos on Tuesday posted higher sales and earnings in its second quarter, driven by two acquisitions earlier this year and a payment related to patent infringement, more than offsetting higher than expected negative impacts from the ongoing pandemic. Net income increased 13% to $153 million, $1.06 a share, from $136 million, […]

Jacobs Engineering on Monday reported a slight bump in revenue for its fiscal third quarter, from $3.2 billion in 2019 to $3.3 billion this year. Net revenue took a similarly modest step up for the three-month period ending June 26, from $2.6 billion to $2.7. billion on a year-over-year basis. The Department of Energy contractor, […]

The Senate overwhelmingly approved Mark Menezes as deputy secretary of energy on Tuesday, despite opposition from some nuke-wary Democrats. The 79-16 vote elevates the current undersecretary of energy to the No. 2 position at the nuclear weapons, waste, and energy agency. Menezes was sworn in to his new job Thursday, after nearly three years as undersecretary […]

Air Force and Navy service members aboard an airplane on Tuesday remotely launched a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile with three unarmed warheads from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. “A joint team of Air Force Global Strike Command Airmen and Navy sailors launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with three test […]

By Cal Biesecker Defense Daily Huntington Ingalls Industries on Thursday posted a steep drop in second-quarter earnings, mainly on charges at its shipyards due to efficiency and staffing challenges, at least some of which stem from COVID-19, and the company lowered its top and bottom line guidance for the year. On a conference call with […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission aims by the end of August to decide on enforcement measures for apparent license and regulatory violations by International Isotopes that contributed to the release of cesium-137 last year at a hospital facility in Seattle. An NRC official noted the schedule at the end of a teleconference Tuesday that gave the […]

The Department of Energy on Wednesday kicked off a long-awaited procurement of the next Savannah River Site management and operations contract with a request for information from industry about the award that will fund the Aiken, S.C., facility’s biggest nuclear-weapons programs. The agency will sort out the value, duration, and exact form of the contract […]

An employee at the Nevada National Security Site died of COVID-19, an agency spokesperson reported this week, marking the second confirmed fatality attributable to the viral disease among civilian nuclear-weapons workers. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) spokesperson declined to identify the individual, or say what job this person did at Nevada.  However, the spokesperson […]

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee used a Thursday nomination hearing to spotlight his opposition to House legislation that would made it harder for the Department of Energy to collaborate with the Pentagon on future nuclear weapons budget requests. That result is something “some people … in the Department of Energy” would like, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said this week it plans to conduct a new, broad environmental review of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Livermore’s last such review, officially known as a site-wide environmental impact statement, was in 2005. The new review will cover operations for the next 15 years. In that time, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will continue to bundle management of the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas in the post Consolidated Nuclear Security era, according to a pre-procurement note posted on July 31. The single contract would be worth up to $28 billion over 10 years, including […]

A recent report from the Government Accountability Office repeated what some nuke-doubters in and out of Congress have been saying for a while: the bigger budget the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) says it needs to keep current and planned programs on track could eat other defense programs’ lunch. “Such an increase may require cuts […]

South Carolina and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) could be about to cut a deal in the state’s $200 million lawsuit over the federal government’s failure to remove plutonium from the Savannah River Site, court papers show. On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted a joint motion to stay the […]

Uranium fuel broker and enrichment-technology developer Centrus Energy posted a profit in the second quarter, rounding out a profitable first half of 2020 in which a major enrichment demonstration contract with the Department of Energy helped stabilize revenue. Second-quarter net income was more than $33.5 million,  or $3.19 per share, up from a loss of […]

Insulated from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic by its large government contracts and a bread-and-butter nuclear Navy business, BWX Technologies this week posted a modest uptick in both profit and revenue for the second quarter of 2020. Quarterly net income rose $5 million to about $64 million, or $0.67 per share, from about $59 […]

International Isotopes has agreed to a pre-decisional enforcement conference with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over apparent breaches of federal regulations and its license in connection with the May 2019 spill of cesium-137 at a hospital research building in Seattle. The teleconference is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon Central time on Tuesday, Aug. 4. The […]

The management prime at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has resumed downblending plutonium at the K Area after operations were suspended in October 2019. Workers for site manager Savannah River Nuclear Solutions started downblending 6 metric tons (MT) of surplus plutonium in the K Area in 2017, but the operations were […]

An estimated 750-acre wildfire on the Nevada National Security Site was reported contained Wednesday, after burning for at least two days. “No injuries reported, and no impact to mission facilities or assets,” according to a Twitter post for the Department of Energy nuclear-weapon site. The site is investigating the cause of the fire, which was […]

Marshall Billingslea may yet officially become the State Department’s top arms-control official, after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday recommended his nomination for a floor vote. The 11-10 vote was split along party lines, with Democrats uniformly opposing Billingslea’s nomination as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security and Republicans almost unanimously […]

Raytheon Technologies on Tuesday said it swung to a loss in the second quarter largely due to a slump in commercial aerospace triggered by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The company’s defense businesses performed well. The commercial outlook remains weak and the company has achieved its cost savings synergies for the year. Sales in the quarter […]

General Dynamics on Wednesday posted lower earnings and sales in its second quarter on continued weakness in its Aerospace segment and an overall decline in its government and defense businesses due to impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. Net income fell 23% to $625 million, $2.18 earnings per share (EPS), from $806 million ($2.77 EPS), three […]

Boeing on Wednesday reported a loss in its second quarter, but not quite as bad as a year ago, as sales fell sharply on fewer commercial aircraft deliveries due to continued weakness in the 737 MAX passenger jet program, temporary shutdowns of some facilities in the spring, and the ongoing impacts to airlines from the […]

There is just one National Nuclear Security Administration, but it has numerous locations with their own ways of doing business, the administrator of the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency told an advisory group this week. The 16-member Secretary of Energy Advisory Board was chartered in 2018 to provide independent advice to the secretary of energy […]